Wednesday, April 30, 2008

I am officially done three of my four years of university. My exam today went very well, which is very good! And I found out that I got a B in my Advanced Geomorphology class, which I'm happy about. Woo!

I was like RIGHT ON TIME for my exam today because I was running late and then I couldn't find the classroom [they had us stuck in some winding hallway in a basement. Ridiculous]. Kerri screamed 'Oh thank God you made it! I called you and you didn't pick up and I was so worried that you forgot!' HAHA

I got lucky and got a spot sitting with Kerri and Phil who I spent all those Friday mornings with. We were the greatest team ever when it comes to sitting together in class. Kerri was in the middle, and she signaled to me that she was almost done, so I finished up, and then Phil finished, and then Kerri came out a few minutes later and we did a little celebration of being done. Then we found out that Sierra is likely not coming back next year for her graduate studies because she has only found a way to come up with half the $60,000 bucks she needs. She's from the US so its way more expensive, but she is the smartest girl ever and she's worked so hard, and the university isn't giving her ANY scholarships. Its insane. So we were sad about that, and then Phil was leaving and we did a regular goodbye, and then he said 'see you next fall' and I was like WHAT? And it was sad, because I remembered that he's going tree planting in BC for the summer and then coming back in August to get married, so we wont be seeing him until school is back. More sadness. So we decided to go out for dinner tomorrow night before Evan and Sierra's wedding.

Yes that's right. Wedding. Weeks ago, when it was starting to become likely that Sierra wouldn't be coming back next year, we decided to marry her off to a Canadian so she could stay. So illegal. Evan decided that as the gay boy, he should do it lol. So for the past month or so, there has been a lot of will they or wont they... there was definitely a time where they were ready to go to a courthouse and get hitched. But I think we finally all realized that it was ultimately stupid, so we're going to have a big party and get dressed up instead! Get ready for 'wedding' pictures!

But before that happens tomorrow night, I have to buy groceries and suit pants [mine are 4 years old and my waist is also 4 years older lol] and I need to do some other errands. Like send my dad my tax stuff, since, you know, its tax day. LOL

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

It is 1:15am snack time at Michael's apartment, so grab your crackers and an assortment of salsas and hummuses and sit on down while I tell you a tale!

Tonight, I took my dishes to the kitchen to wash them, as people sometimes do. I am generally pretty clean, but I leave my dishes for a day or two in my room, because I like doing more than two or three things at a time, and I don't like leaving a mess in the kitchen, even though Tim leaves gigantic disgusting messes at all times.

The other day, I did leave a frying pan in the sink. I tend to not bring the frying pan to my room since that would be weird since I'm not eating off of it in my room. So, I took my dishes to the kitchen, and found that Tim had taken my frying pan out of the sink and put it on the counter. Why? So he could put his own frying pan in the sink. What the hell is the reasoning behind this? If anyone can help me here, I'd love to get an explanation.

And now, as a special gift to LunchLady, I bring you the back story of why the frying pan was left unwashed for a few days in the first place:

I was cooking scrambled eggs. Stupidly, I turned the element on high, and the pan got hot, and I cracked the eggs into the pan. They started frying immediately and I did not want that. I grabbed a fork and started mixing them around, and with my other hand [which had egg grossness on it] I reached for the dial to turn down the heat. When I touched the the dial, I felt a zap go all through the left side of my body, and my hand was thrown off the dial.

I don't know if it was the egg crap on my hand, or the fact that i was holding the dial in one hand, and holding a fork touching the pan touching the element with the other hand. I also don't know why the power didn't go all the way through me, but I'm glad it didn't because I believe that's the way you die from being electrocuted. Scary shit. I got lucky.

Needless to say, I didn't even want to be in the kitchen for a while, so I did not clean the pan.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

I haven't posted much lately because I've had nothing to talk about. I had my Advanced GIS and Social Motivation exams. GIS lasted 30 mins. What a joke. I've pretty much been doing nothing all week. I've watched some movies [Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park 2, because I never saw them before... yes I will watch 3 too. Also, Fido which was super good, and Juno which I bought since it rocks].

Last night I went for drinks with Erin and her friend Jen and it was good times. The day before, I went shopping with Erin because she needed shoes. We randomly went into the mens store of Fairweather [because I find it weird that they sell mens clothes] and definitely saw some things in there that were there the last time Erin and I went in, which was a year ago. Apparently no one agrees with Men's Fairweather lol.

After the shopping [where I ran into my uncle Larry, the one who is pointing in the background of a picture in my post The Injury], we went to school and protested against the stupid student code of conduct that they are trying to instate when all the students are busy studying and/or gone home for the summer. They want to take away our right to disagree with university policy decisions, and punish us if we badmouth the school in any way. Free speech at its finest, brought to us by the people WE PAY to apparently tell us what to do. Assholes! *cough* ... Oops, I coughed too late. Oh well. If you want to read about this, you can consult McLeans by clicking HERE. You can also click HERE to see pictures. You can even play Where's Waldo [which is totally what stupid Kyle calls me] by finding me in the 5th picture. I'm wearing yellow and grey stripes. Do you see my back? lol ... The pictures inside are the people surrounding the glassed-off President's office. It got pretty damn loud in there, especially when they rolled in a drum kit. The VP dared show his face, but the President [outgoing] is a wuss.

You all know how much I like pictures, so here is one. It is getting grassy outside!

Man, I just realized that I posted, and I didn't even explain the title. Yesterday, I was definitely electrocuted by my stove while scrambling eggs. It was insane and I thought I was going to die. Also, the day before, I was inches from being smacked by a delivery truck. I need to be more careful.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Today I did some stuff. I went to Wal-Mart and bought Juno and socks. Then I went to the dentist. They want my wisdom teeth. I think I'll soon give up and let them have them.

I would like to announce that for the first time in my life, I was not told that I should be flossing. Why? I've been flossing. Sometimes. Huzzah!

I went to Urban Planet [lame] to buy some shorts, and Bounsavanh was working there. She helped me pick some out. I bought 2 pairs.

But then as I turned onto my street, I saw this:

The Edgars are moving. See the sign? It's right there. It is horrible. The wonderful elderly couple that has lived diagonally across the street for 20 years is moving away and there is nothing I can do about it. I always assumed that they would stay until one of them passed away. But no. They're leaving. No more waves across the road. Nothing. Sadness. My mother will get the details.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

This post comes to you all the way from the small town of Renfrew. Woo! I'm home for the weekend to go to the dentist on Monday, and to do some other stuff.

First off, the injury. So, yesterday Momma and Darrel were doing some work outside. Raking leaves that were not raked last year, replacing a few boards on the front steps, and sanding the cracked paint on the outside window frames and then repainting them. I helped Momma get the sandpaper on the sander since she couldn't figure it out LOL

They only got half the leaves raked, so Momma is working on that solo today, and they didn't get the window frames painted, so I offered to do that today. So I COULD HAVE fallen off the ladder, but I didn't. I COULD HAVE gotten stung by the many wasps flying around me at all times. I COULD HAVE gotten a massive glob of paint in my eye. But no. I came inside to wash my hands, and while washing my hands, I gouged my thumbnail so deep into my hand that I took off 2 or 3 layers of skin. What a wuss injury.

Yesterday, Alison and I went to Uncle Lyle's 50th birthday party. It was a bloody mess. My Aunt Christine didn't speak to me or look at me because I didn't RSVP. I was fine with that. But at a party where there's enough foor for 400 people and about 100 people are there, I don't think me not RSVPing is a big deal. She was such a bitch to everyone all afternoon. What a fun party hostess!

Aunt Donna Lynn and Alison in their lovely pink shirts.

Aunt Sharon and Jadyn. Uncle Larry is back there telling someone to get the hell out. Probably. lol

Poor little Rachel was a tired, dishevelled mess. And had some cut on her nose. She's pretty accident prone.

Later that night, I went for a walk down to the swinging bridge with Lindsay.

And Rebecca, who doesn't like it when I shake the bridge. Hey, who can guess how much bridge shaking I did? lol

The water was very high. Much higher than normal.

I was there too. I just wanted some Tim Hortons.

Later, Lindsay touched the moon. It was amazing.

Then we ran into her sister on the street. Yay Lesley!

And Natasha was there, because she's cool like that.

The we went and met Jodie and saw the movie The Bank Job, which was pretty good. The only person I knew in it was Jason Statham, who seems to be pretty good at hesiting, because he's also awesome in The Italian Job, and will be in The Brazillian Job if that ever gets made [like come on. it was supped to come out in 2007, and now its still being written? Screw you!}

Finally, I took this picture of a tulip on my kitchen table. Nice, no?

I'm off to do a second coat of paint. Hope you're all having a good weekend!

Friday, April 18, 2008

First of all, I would like you all to notice that after months of attempts, I have finally figured out the code to have a random header picture, so now it will change when you refresh the page or be different each time you visit. Fun!

Amanda and I met at the Rideau Center, and walked to the library which turned out to be useless. Then we decided to go to Schelly's to bug her since she wouldn't be studying anyway. We were right. We hung out there for a while and it was boiling because it was 20 freaking degrees today! [It was First Day of Shorts 2008. Woo!]

We went to the Elgin Street Diner for late lunch, and then strolled on over to the Museum of Nature for some five dollar fun! [Note: it costs $5 to enter the museum, not $20 lol].

Amanda was desperate to see dinosaurs.

Michelle enjoyed this one. They're friends.

Also on display somewhere was clearly a wheelchair/baby race. Who do you think would win?

We even got an aerial view of the dino friends!

Only a few sections of the museum were open. By looking through this door, you can see that like 70% of the castle is under construction.

As you can see, this dinosaur was letting us know about the castle renovations. It's true, y'all! Apparently the rest of the place wont be ready for another year or two.

Here I am, finding out that I weight more than 1000 blue jays. My goodness!

The three of us played some sort of bird game. I won. It had a sweet electronic dice thing. This is a really good camera timer pic. I'm great at those LOL

Rawr!

After the museum, we went for gelato. Then we went back to Michelle's where Amanda suited up, and I fixed her hair cut.

Who would ever let me go at them with scissors? Crazy people, that's who! But, for a first ever hair cutting attempt, I think it went pretty well!

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Welcome friends, to my 150th post. I have far exceeded any other blogging attempt ever. Celebrate with me!

Today was pretty boring. The main event was my Death and Dying midterm, which was alright but not amazing.

Yesterday was very good though. Here's why:

I slept well, woke up well, was generally happy to begin my day. I did a bit of studying, then ate some cereal, and then I was off to my Advanced Geomorphology exam at 2. The exam took 2.5 of the alloted 3 hours. I was finished 3 [of 9] and then waited in the hall for Evan to finish. Eventually a small group of us were outside, and we all found the exam to be BETTER THAN EXPECTED! Yay! We had to do a LOT of sketching which was unexpected. Everyone said that it all went well, but the funniest thing was that EVERY PERSON said their drawing of a cirque was horrendous. But really, how the hell do you draw this?:

Afterwards, Evan, Matt and I went to have a few drinks [They are both done university now. Jerks!] and Norah joined us too [she's a grad student. Jerk!] ... During the drinks [which lasted like 2 hours], Norah shouted 'OH MY GOD ITS ON FIRE!' and the entire place looked out the window to see massive billowing black smoke and flames a few blocks over. We didn't know WHAT was on fire though. We kept guessing, but then realized that for geography students, none of us know the locations of places on and near campus very well HAHA. There were tons of emergency vehicles that kept flying by the bar for like 15 minutes, which was pretty crazy, and the smoke lasted a good 10-15 minutes.

When we left the bar, we tried to find the place. Blocks and blocks of emergency vehicles lined up on several streets. They were everywhere, with cops and firemen and paramedics everywhere. But nowhere to be seen was there a burnt building. We just could not find it. All the emergency workers just seemed to be hanging out. It was so weird.

After that, I bought a few groceries. The weather was beautiful. I went home, and made lasagna. To my surprise, it was the BEST LASAGNA I'VE EVER HAD. I enjoyed it while watching Big Brother, then did some studying for today's midterm.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Tonight for supper, I cooked up some chicken breast, cut it up, added it to spinach and BBQ sauce and wrapped it up and it was delicious. I know that's not impressive, but it was delicious and the most exciting part of my day.

The rest of the day I studied [slowly] for my Advanced Geomorphology exam which is tomorrow afternoon. I'm sad, because I don't have much longer to sound smart by saying I'm in an Advanced Geomorphology class. People usually just smile and/or stare, so they think I'm smart haha.

There was a good chunk of time though were I could hear Tim loudly playing his fucking guitars. He would play the electric in his room, because he thinks I can't here through a wall, and then he'd play his acoustic right outside my room, because he thinks my door acts as a cone of silence. So I listen to him butcher Dust on the Bottle 9 or 12 times, which angers me greatly because I happen to love that song and used to sing it in my own butchering way in high school. The difference is that he thinks he's playing it well, whereas I was making a mockery of myself. And how do I know that he thinks he's good?

*knock knock knock* "Michael, are you there?"

"Uhh, ya." *is studying all kinds of hard*

"Can I come in?"

"Uhh, ok."

*door flies open, Tim and acoustic fly in, and start closing the door as per usual and as per awkwardness* "You'll be excited, I've 'learned' a country song."

"Ya, I heard."

"Oh? How did you hear?"

"Guitars are loud and the walls aren't soundproof."

"Oh, well I'm going to play the ENTIRE SONG for you." [yes, he stressed that]

"No, you're not. I heard it. I'm studying. I have exams the next two days."

"Oh are you? Ya, I have an exam tomorrow at 9:30am. I'll stop playing for the night."

"Thanks."

Naturally, within 3 minutes, we was playing again. But real quiet so I couldn't hear. Because guitars are very quiet. Who the FUCK buys their boyfriend a guitar the day after he moves in with someone?

Just so you know, he wasn't studying for his exam, because he's in his last year of LEISURE STUDIES. But it gets better. Instead of graduating on time, he'll be taking one more semester next year. OF LEISURE STUDIES.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

I must give a big shout out to Lunchlady, who periodically posts about the wording of the Google searches that people have use in order to locate her blog. They are usually pretty ridiculous, and she manages to post a whole hell of a lot about each one.

Me, I'm not so inventive, and therefore I will never be able to go into such detail about them. I WILL be able to write a sentence or two about them! Yay!

Lucky you, I have started tracking the searches to my site on this lovely day, and there are THREE! Woo! [Lunchlady is at 9. Well screw you man!]

Here we go.

Googler #1 sought "social stories on playing outside". Links were provided to my posts The CMAs as well as The Pinwheel. This one clearly makes the most sense, and I'm kind of happy I get to start with it. Clearly, the person knows a thing or two about the FREAKING JOYS of playing outside, and is likely writing an important research document outlining the phenomenon. I'll probably be quoted. What an honour! Sadly, neither post in question related to the outdoors in any way.

Googler # 2 was interested in "tim hortons motivation". Bizarrely, the person clicked the link to my post The Christmas Eve, which only relates to the subject in that I randomly mentioned a can of Tim Horton's hot chocolate. This link was 102nd in the Google search. This poor bastard probably owns a Tim Horton's and desperately needs ideas to improve morale amongst his employees. Sadly, he clicked every link in the 92 pages of search, and probably found nothing, because there is NO way to improve morale at Tim Horton's. Unless its Christmas Eve.

Googler #3 wanted to "watch lost outside us". After looking at the first 50 pages of results, I still can't find the link to my site. Apparently this poor bastard went through more than 500 search results to find me. Not even my readers go to that much trouble for me. [Jerks!] Quite frankly, the query is simply too existential for me to tackle. Not now, and certainly not in a pastpost! [Say it with me: past post past post past post].

To sum up, Google is tracking everything you do, and you should freak out RIGHT NOW.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

For the first time ever, I'm posting live from class. Why you ask? I'll tell you! This class [Advanced GIS] is taught by such a stupid man, and each week, he comes to class and shows up websites that exist. That's about it. You guys could learn about it at home! Just go to Google and search for a topic. Anything really. But to get the full Advanced GIS experience, they should likely be GIS-related websites.

I was 5 minutes late for class, which makes me happy, but the reason why is no good at all. I only take the bus 2 stops to school, but before we even got to the first stop, the bus hit a traffic jam. The Transitway is buses only, so this isn't very common. The dispatcher came on the intercom and the driver turned it way down so we couldn't hear what she was saying. Like we weren't going to see the ambulance and police cars, and the guy lying on a stretcher, with an empty 95 stopped in the middle of the road. The guy looked awake which is awesome, but he was just hit by a stretch bus full of people. I don't know how anyone could survive that!

Third on my list of things to say is that I have learned of a fun site thanks to RRY. It lets you upload 12 songs for others to listen. You can click the link on the right that says Michael's Muxtape [no, not mixtape] and I will add my newest downloaded songs as I download them. You get to listen to them right there on the internet. Nifty! This is especially good for Mando, who wants to know about country music [do you still want that?] and now you can listen without downloading. But its not all country music. Sometimes a random song that I hear on TV will be added. Also, right now they are not ALL recently downloaded songs, because I don't remember the last 12, so there are like 6 recent downloads and 6 songs I like. Woo!

That is all. Now I will go back to playing on Facebook and not listening to the moron yammer.

Monday, April 7, 2008

This weekend, I headed into Quebec to Camp Awacamenj Mino with a bunch of geography students. We had a freaking blast.

Kerri and Norah, just dying to get there. This was AFTER the bus hit a massive bump and we were all tossed into the air. Our luggage was in the seats behind us, and it slammed against the roof of the bus. Calm down, driver.

I was decked out in a T-shirt, sweatshirt and jacket. Dressed for the weather, you know. That wouldn't last.

We arrived and a beautiful ladybug landed on me and wouldn't leave. Yay! The one bug I like!

After we put our bags in our cabin, we ate some lunch and then grabbed our chairs and headed on down to the beach.

Amaris used the successful 'over the shoulders' carrying technique.

The fine group ahead of us flattened a path to the beach. They had boots, and like the last time I played in the snow, I did not.

The beautiful Lac Isabelle!

Just plunk a chair into the snowy beach and enjoy the sun!

Sierra twanging it up. Oh Kentucky girl.

Mary and Jody, who I somehow didn't meet until now even though everyone I know at school is friends with her.

What a beautiful [but bright with no sunglasses] day on the beach.

At night, Kerri and Norah guided their Flip Cup teams on the quest to victory. Kerri's team ultra sucked.

Here is Norah packing her bag after a night in the 'sleeps 14' bunkbed.

Jenna or Jill, depending on the mood.

Kaiser is a super bus packer.

My poor face. Its more burnt than it looks there LOL

Chris waiting to board the bus. tired after guitaring until late into the night.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

I am currently immersed in a week and a half of doing very little other than homework. I have 4 assignments due next week: a geomorphology mapping assignment due on Monday, a GIS poster due Thursday, and psych and research methods papers for Friday.

I will be away Saturday-Sunday, so I have elected to finish two assignments before then. Last night I did the first half of my GIS poster [making maps, which took about 6 hours]. Today I did map research for my geomorphology assignment, then class, then finished the research. Then I came home and napped and watched some TV. Then it was back to work on my poster. I designed my layout and then did the very boring part of the writeup, which is kind of lame, but its more about the maps in the end.

So I am one project down out of 4. Yay! The poster maps the areas in Salinas, California that are most conducive to human survival. There is lots of gang activity in the city, so you want to live as far from gangs and as close to hospitals as possible. I think its a great topic! This is a project that needs to be done a few days early, because it is a 15 sq ft poster and I need to get it printed [which should cost 45 bucks, but will be free because I know the guy LOL]. You can click to check it out if you want. Its pretty big.